


Sunset Expedition

by Mistery Man (Mre97)



Category: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Space: 1889
Genre: Adventure, Crossover, No knowledge of Space: 1889 required, Steampunk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:34:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22917793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mre97/pseuds/Mistery%20Man
Summary: Long ago, Starswirl's mirror was damaged, and for some reason that nopony knows the destination was changed. Sunset Shimmer learns about this world, a wild and untamed land, and in a display of angry-teenage decision making thinks spending 20 moons on that world is a good way to get Celestia's respect.Meanwhile, the year is 1889, Ether-Flyers traverse the inner solar system, and the tidally-locked world of Mercury is still a nearly unmapped mystery for humanity. The British Empire, nearing the height of its power, claims the world, but only maintains a small outpost in the small sliver of land between the eternal day of the hot side and the eternal night of the dark side known as the Twilight Zone.------A crossover with Space 1889, a sort of steampunk sci-fi RPG setting that I am a fan of.NOTE: This fic will get into the politics of the late 1800's, and the reality of the time was that most people in positions of power were pretty terrible by our standards and Equestrias, but this will not be a human-bashing fic, just because the governments of Earth are full of terrible people does not mean humanity is terrible.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Everyone!
> 
> As a brief introduction to the setting: in Space 1889, the "Ether", the medium between planets that scientists theorized existed back when they were convinced light needed a medium to travel through, is real. Events follow reality more or less exactly up until 1870, when Thomas Edison figures out both how to build an ether propeller and that you need to be high up in atmosphere to use it, and he proves it by journeying to Mars, which is inhabited by a civilization that is clinging to life on their vast network of drying canals. After that, it's a bonanza, as Earths industrial powers run wild over the inner solar system (their ships are powered by boilers that use solar energy, and beyond the asteroid belt they can't get enough power to work), with Britain and Germany establishing colonies on Mars and Venus (cloud-covered jungle world of eternal rain with a native race of lizard-men).
> 
> However, because these are empires, the result is generally not pretty. In fact, King Leopold II has, in addition to the Congo Free State, a colony on Mars run the same way, and is making plans for further expansion. However, this isn't going to be a humanity vs Equestria fic where Equestria is better than humanity, although Equestria will come into conflict with individual human governments

Sunset Shimmer was going to leave Equestria. In another timeline, she would slip through the mirror with nothing and come out the other side changed into a human, dumped in a strange world where human counterparts of Equestrians lived their lives, completely unaware of the realm of magic hidden on the other side of a statue in front of a high school. In this timeline, things went differently.

Alright, Starswirl’s notes said that after some incident with a trio of sirens, which I could find nothing about, the portal shifted to a new world, one with background magic but without civilization. Sunset reviewed her research mentally as she prepared to cross, a pair of saddlebags loaded with books, equipment, and supplies for living away from civilization on her back. His trip to the other side was only long enough to determine that the background magic levels were too high to safely imprison threats to Equestria, since they could use the power to potentially find their way back, and then he left it. There are no records of anypony else going through, which means that I’m going to be completely alone, finally unbothered by “friends” or anypony else who could hold me back! Sure, getting what I need to survive wasted most of the three days the portal was open, but not dying before I conquer this alien world is worth it.

With a flash of telekinesis, she distracted the pair of solar guards in front of the mirror, and with a shove they flew across the room. Teleporting from her hiding place to right in front of the mirror, she felt the unicorn guards restraint spell start to grab her as she jumped through. When she hit the ground, it wasn’t on the cold stone floors of the palace, but on rough dirt, and as she stood up she found everything seemingly much lighter, as if her and all her equipment suddenly weighed less than half as much but her muscles were just as strong. Looking around, she took in her surroundings. Directly in front of her was a small hill, and to her left a quiet river flowed slowly as it looped around the hill. Behind her was a second hill, forming a “valley” around the portal a hundred or so yards across, and to her right the ground opened up into a grassland with scattered clumps of trees for a few miles before slowly becoming a thick forest. However for some reason it was so dim, almost like there was thick clouds in front of the sun despite clear skies above her, that she couldn’t see very far either over the river or into the forest.

Alright, first objective, get the lay of the land from up that hill, maybe see if I can figure out why it’s so dim here, is this worlds sun just very weak or something? At least Celestia keeps the world lit properly during the day. I know Starswirl’s notes said there were no cities around here, but he was only here for less than a day to make sure the other end was locked down and wouldn’t shift again, this is probably just something like their version of the Everfree. She began walking up the hill, the uncomfortable weight of her bags much lighter on this world for some reason. It’s so strange how everything feels lighter here, it must be the natural magic of this world… oh sweet Celestia.

Stretching out before her was a sight that proved beyond anything else that she was no longer in Equestria. To her right, a river looped around the hill she was on and headed off towards the sun for around half a mile until it met a body of water her mind insisted was a lake of some sort, stretching somewhere around one and a half to two miles across. However, from the way the water stretched from horizon to horizon and the faint signs of a constant flow from right to left, she had the sinking suspicion that whatever was in front of her was actually the largest river she, or likely anypony, had ever seen. However, even that wasn’t as strange as what lay on the horizon. This world's sun just... hung in the sky, half above and half below the horizon, as if Celestia had one day just gotten bored halfway through raising the sun and left it hanging in the sky when she went for a nap. Whoever is in charge of the sun on this world Sunset thought as she began to hike down towards the large river is either in a load of trouble, or so lazy that somepony else should take over for them. Maybe somepony with a cutie mark of the sun… She smiled as the image of herself as an alicorn filled her mind.

With that image in her mind, Sunset walked happily down to the junction of the two rivers. At the water's edge, she telekinetically lifted her saddlebags, and the first downside of this new world became apparent. Hmmm… the thaumaturgical background energy levels in this world seem to be lower than Equestria, let me just… alright, testing… 27.2%?! With that level of background energy I’ll burn through my reserves insanely quickly doing any sort of major magic.

She pushed the thoughts out of her head as she pulled out her field telescope and scanned the river. After a few minutes, she reluctantly admitted that Starswirl might have been right about the lack of civilization in this world. Waterways are an easy way to transport goods in a pre-railroad society, and they make for decent sources of irrigation water for farming, but both banks of this river are clear of any sign of settlement as far as I can see, and there aren’t any boats or barges on the river. Also, the clouds are obviously unmanaged, no sign of any pegasi or griffons. I’ll need more time to be sure, but I might actually be the only Pony on this planet!

After that revelation, Sunset spent a few more minutes magically testing the plants in the area to ensure she could eat them, since her whole plan would fall apart if she starved waiting for the portal to reopen. Satisfied that the plants were, if not the tastiest food she had ever had, at least enough to keep her fed, she turned and climbed back up the hill overlooking the portal to set up camp. As Princess Celestia’s student, Sunset Shimmer had a lot of knowledge and experience many unicorns two or more times her age would never have, but living in Canterlot and focusing single-mindedly on her studies tended to leave her with certain gaps in practical knowledge. For example, how to properly set up a tent.

“Look, you stupid thing, just get in there and… GAH!” Sunset screamed in frustration. “Alright, one more time, the poles fit together like… that! Yes! Alright, and now I just slide this on and… Alright! Finally!” She stepped back and admired her “camp” which at this point consisted of a tent and firepit (dug according to the diagrams in a survival book) next to the obelisk that contained the portal back to Equestria. She’d considered camping on top of one of the hills to reduce drainage issues if it rained, but if there were ponies or some other intelligent creature in this world they would be able to see her from the river if she did that. Sure, if they were friendly it might delay their meeting, but if they were hostile being harder to see from the river could only be a good thing.

As she looked over the camp, she felt an uneasy sensation in her horn, similar to wearing an inhibitor ring. In a panic, she cast a spell to clear any physical or magical object off her horn, but even though the spell worked there was nothing for it to remove, so the energy just disappeared. In a panic she pulled out her thaumaturgic background level scanner, and her worst fears were confirmed. 7.1%?!?! HOW!? How is it dropping that quickly, this shouldn’t be possible, none of Starswirls notes mentioned this… but he was only here while the portal was open. She looked down at the obelisk, eyes wide in terror. No no no no no! She ran down the hill, falling and rolling most of the way in her panic. At the bottom, she pulled herself up and rushed towards the portal before slamming into it and falling backwards. Dazed and confused, she pulled herself back to her hooves and tried to collect her thoughts.

If the magic disappears… If all the magic disappears until the portal opens back to Equestria, I’m doomed. Without magic, I won’t be able to hold things in telekinesis or with my hooves, and I’ll have to rely on the few plants I’ve already tested as safe for all of my food, and I don’t even know if I can boil the water without magic so I might either die of dehydration or some sort of infection! She curled up against the edge of obelisk and began to shake. This was a mistake, this whole thing was a mistake, I could handle this world when magic was only a quarter or so of Equestria’s, but with no magic… Sunset Shimmer let out a sob as she pulled herself closer, feeling the magic slip away from her.

However, after a few minutes of crying, when she climbed back up to the camp and looked at the scanner again, she noticed that it was holding steady at a couple percent of Equestrian normal, and realization dawned. Running down to the river bank, she tested the levels again, and her theory was confirmed. While the portal to Equestria dumped massive amounts of energy into the environment for a short three day period every twenty moons, the great river that stretched from horizon to horizon was giving off a small trickle of power. It wasn’t much, and the fact that the rest of the planet was thaumaturgically dead was a bad sign, but it was power, and Sunset could work with limited power much better than she could work with no power.

Pulling herself to her hooves, she started to plan. Alright, I’ll need to ration my magic use, and some of the enchantments on my equipment won’t be able to draw power from the environment at levels this low, but if I can make some thaumaturgical batteries… but how to charge them…? Maybe a magic circle to pull in and concentrate background magic? She thought to herself as she walked back up the hill to her camp.

As she set up her camp, she took the crystals she’d purchased for enchantments and laid them out. Relying on half-remembered principles and esoteric crystal lore, she arranged eight of them in an intricate double circle, four in the inner circle at the top sides and bottom, and another four rotated 45 degrees and a few inches outwards, connected by channels carved in the hard dirt. It wasn’t pretty, and any rain would disrupt it, but it was functional. Placing a ruby in the center, she watched as the circle began to light up, the gems working with the spell to draw power from the air into the gem. Alright, I have a few more crystals I can use as batteries, that gives me a decent reserve if I need it for complex magic. Now I can get to work. Sunset thought as she pulled out her books, looking through the spell matrices for any way to cut down the magic required for each spell. She might have been working with a fraction of the magic she was used to, but one does not get to become the personal student of Princess Celestia by being bad at magic, and as the alien sun rested on the horizon her expedition truly began.


	2. Chapter 2

Expedition Log: Day 2

I have successfully managed to stabilize the enchantments on my equipment to operate in the new low-magic environment. However, I am having difficulty with even the most basic of magic in this reduced environment, even basic telekinesis is slowly draining my reserves. I have begun to look into the basic structure of many of the spells I use to see if I can modify them to be more efficient, but that sort of work will take time. On the bright side, I seem to have nothing but time, 20 moons at 30 days per moon gives me 600 days until I can go home, and since there aren’t any stores on this world for me to buy food or equipment, that means I need to be smart about this if I want to do more than survive, and I do.

I came to this world to get out from under Celestia’s shadow, and that is exactly what I am going to do. Figuring out how to become a princess by myself in a low-magic environment might be impossible, but not only surviving in but taming an alien world, one without magic? If anything will get Celestia to acknowledge that I deserve to be a Princess it’s that. Cadence just did some sappy trick with love magic and an artifact to ascend, and this is definitely going to be more impressive than that. Once I’ve ascended, I’ll build a more stable portal between these worlds and start recruiting ponies for my new realm, and finally Celestia will have to treat me as an equal.

I have a lot of work to do though, so I will be keeping this log to keep track of my plans, long and short-term, and my discoveries. I’ve never done this before, but it can’t be that much harder than keeping notes in class.

Basic needs:

  1. Food: Native plant life is edible, confirmed with Clover the Clevers “Digestibility Examination” spell prior to loss of Equestrian magic.
  2. Water: Main river is strangely brackish for a river of its size, but the tributary by my camp has plenty of clean water, although without magic to bolster my immune system I should begin boiling any water I drink to prevent infections.
  3. Shelter: My tent is the best I could acquire in Canterlot with only a day to prepare, and I will be shepherding reserve magic to keep as many of its enchantments functional as possible. If it breaks, I have books on the construction of various shelters.



Observations

  1. Directions: The sun does not move in this world, so I’m just going to say it’s to my west in an eternal sunset (could be sunrise, but I like my way better and nopony else is here to argue with me), meaning the river flows from south to north.
  2. Civilization: As the Starswirl's notes indicated, this world appears untamed and wild. From my limited observations I have seen no sign of civilization, and given the size and slow current of the large river nearby I believe that if any civilization existed nearby there would be regular traffic along it. The lack of any ships or boats seemingly confirms my hypothesis, but further observation is needed.
  3. Weight: Everything seems much lighter on this world, and while that’s making it easy for me to carry things around, it is taking a while to adjust, and I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever really get used to it.



Plan

  1. I have food, water, and shelter. So long as I maintain my equipment properly, I will be able to last the next 20 moons in… well not in comfort, but it will be enough to live off of as I research this world and prepare to ascend.
  2. As the book noted, Starswirl did not explore this world beyond verifying that it was different from the original destination of the spell, which means I, Sunset Shimmer, have the right to name everything I see.
  3. Given the eternal sunset of this world, I will need to work out a way to keep time. My watch is decent so long as it works, but if it breaks I will find it difficult to keep track of time, and in the last three days I have not seen a moon that I can track, so without an alternative if my watch breaks I will lose track of time. Thankfully the portal lets out a burst of energy while it’s open, so even if my watch breaks I’ll be able to tell if it is open.



Expedition Log: Day 3

My watch runs on magic and ran out while I slept. I tried to recharge it and it was annoyingly difficult, I needed to dump all the energy stored overnight into the air so the enchantement would pull in some, and it’s nowhere near fully charged. Given that, I now have no economical way of charging this watch, and without it I have no way of checking time. Without the day-night cycle, I have to guess when to sleep and eat, and I can no longer date my entries accurately. To avoid confusion if anypony reads this in the future, I will from now on use “cycles” to refer to one period between waking up and going to sleep. Once back to Equestria, it will be interesting to see how far I strayed from a normal day length.

Additionally, I will not be writing an entry every day, I only have so much paper and ink, and I need to conserve both. I’ll only write when something important happens.

Expedition Log, Cycle 13

These last few cycles have been difficult, but I think I’m finally able to start exploring. I’ve started to preserve some of the plants I’ve harvested to carry with me on exploration trips. While I don’t think I’ll ever run out of food with the forest nearby, preserving food lets me only make a trip to gather more every few cycles instead of heading to the woods every time I’m hungry, and having stocks of preserved food means I can focus on covering ground when exploring instead of breaking to find food.

Additionally, I have used what magic I do have to make my camp more permanent, I used the instructions in one of my books to create a lean-to out of sticks to shelter my equipment and whatever samples I bring back from expeditions, and I used one of my tarps to cover my magic circle from the elements, although I’m going to need to find a large stone to carve it into if I want a more permanent solution. I’m also looking into making something more permanent than a tent, but everything I have requires magic, so it will take a long time before I’m sleeping in an actual building. Even worse, even basic transfiguration is to draining, so even over I have a permanent shelter I’ll need to hunt for some plants nearby to make blankets and a quilt!

In other news, I have decided on names for my immediate surroundings. While I could name everything after myself, my research before this trip told me that was considered poor form for geographic features.

  * The large brackish river that runs from horizon to horizon, I have named The Great River  (note to self, I might not be the best at naming things)
  * The tributary that I have been drinking from I have named Starswirl’s River after the creator of the mirror that brought me here, since it was probably the only landmark he saw if he didn’t do any exploring.
  * There are mountains to the northwest, I can barely make them out with my eyes, and looking at them with my field telescope is dangerous now that the protective enchantments have run out of energy, but I can tell that they are at least a mile above The Great River, likely taller. I have named them the Rockhoof Range after one of Starswirl's companions in the Pillars of Equestria.



I will be making a journey south to explore the forest, if I am lucky I will find some plants that taste better than the grass and reeds of the riverbank.

Expedition Log: Day 17

My exploration of the forest, which I am naming Meadowbrook Forest to keep up the Pillars of Equestria theme for this region, went decently. I’ve had some experience with wild, untamed nature before, but this was something else. I didn’t recognize any of the animals or plants, and even with the battery crystals I brought I only tested out a couple dozen plants before I ran dangerously low. On the bright side, I found a few that were not only edible but actually tasted good. With how far my camp is from the forest it’ll be a hassle to bring it back to camp whenever I want food that tastes good, so I’ll have to either relocate away from the portal or set up a garden, or something like that. Maybe I can relocate the portal obelisk?

If I’m being honest with myself, I’m starting to regret this plan. It’s only been a couple of weeks since the portal closed, and the lack of company is starting to get to me. I think I spent so long shunning everypony else that I thought I would be able to take being the only pony on a planet for 20 moons easily, but that’s not true.

I’ll start looking into the portal obelisk, maybe there’s a way to get it to open more than once every 20 moons, so I can sneak in while Celestia isn’t expecting me and… I don’t know, find somepony who wants to come with me I guess? This planet is beautiful, so wild and untamed, and if it wasn’t for the low magic levels and the loneliness I’d be having the time of my life right now, so maybe if I re-open the portal for more magic and to bring other ponies in…

In any event, that’s more of a long-term goal. I don’t even know if the portal can be modified like that yet.

Expedition Log: Cycle 31

I need to get better at keeping this log updated. Since my last entry I began construction on a boat to cross the Great River, but it’s been slow going. I’m trying to hollow out a log like the book shows me, but between the magic I’m spending to try and set up a decent permanent shelter and my research into the portal obelisk I’m running low on energy constantly. The background magic levels have stabilized at approximately 2.3%±.2% of Equestrias background levels for the last week, and that’s better than nothing, but it’s just not enough for what I want to do. A lot of my equipment and most of the survival techniques in these books rely on a steady supply of magic, and without it I’m running into problems, which is alright for as long as I stay in the area near my camp, but it is ruining my plans for anything more than surviving.

In unrelated news, it turns out alien plants aren’t the best for my diet. I apparently was suffering vitamin deficiencies, something that I blew nearly my entire reserve of magic to determine, and then I spent the next week blowing through my reserves as fast as they refilled trying to find plants that will fill that part of my diet. The good news is I found a plant that does that. The bad news it tastes horrible. I’ve named it Dirt Flower because it’s a flower and it tastes like dirt. I had to eat nearly a pound of it before my symptoms finally went away, and I’m hoping that was just due to how long I went without those nutrients, because if I have to regularly eat that much I’ll go insane.

I’ll try cooking it with some other plants, maybe if it’s only part of a meal it’ll be less disgusting.

Expedition Log: Day 42:

My canoe worked… decently. I was able to make it over to the other side of the river, but I burned a lot of energy. On the other side I tested a few plants, made some notes, and got a better view of the area nearby.

Some observations:

  * The plants on the other side are similar but different than the ones I’ve grown used to, but I don’t know enough about botany to tell why. Something interesting to keep in mind for the future.
  * The Rockhoof Mountains are definitely huge, with some of the peaks about as tall as Mount Canterlot.
  * The wildlife is much more aggressive on this side. On my side near my camp, I was lucky to not see any large predators, while over here I had to burn precious magic reserves to keep some strange creatures that I can only describe as a giant lizard with a fin on its back.

    * The creature had crystals embedded in the base of its fin, as much as I dislike the idea of hunting a few more crystals could open up a lot of options magically, even if just as extra reserves for exploring.
  * While naming things like mountains after yourself is in bad taste for explorers, it’s normal to name things like forts and encampments after members of an expedition, and as the leader of the Sunset Expedition I have declared that my campsite will be named Camp Sunset after our expeditions chief biologist, and chief thaumatologist, and primary sponsor, and quartermaster, and secretary…

    * The more I think about it, the more I realize that maybe I should have brought more ponies with me...



I’m going to take a short nap to replenish my reserves (I set wards to warn me if that lizard comes back) and then I’ll cross back to my camp. With how much energy just getting here and spending a few hours took, I think I’m going to have to postpone any further trips across the river until I get a solution implemented.

Expedition Log: Cycle 43

The trip back was a nightmare. I was a little over halfway across when _something_ came up from the deep and attacked my canoe. I didn’t get a good look at it, it kept ducking underwater and jutting out only for a few moments at a time, but whatever it was cracked my canoe open. I managed to save almost everything, I lost a pair of thaumaturgical batteries and some food, and make it to shore by shoving everything in my saddlebags and activating their waterproof enchantments with one battery each before dumping every other scrap of power into a teleport to get myself as close to my camp as possible. I ended up a little over 100 yards from the shore, and I swear I will remember the sheer terror and fear I felt swimming to shore for the rest of my life. Every plant brushing my hoof was a monster out to eat me, every fish that swam up to me was about to chow down for a dinner of unicorn meat, and the current of the river itself meant that when I finally made it to shore I was actually north of the junction between the Great River and Starswirl’s river.

I was able to pull the batteries keeping my bags waterproof out and use them to teleport across the river to camp, and then I passed out in my tent as the adrenaline wore off. With the loss of two of my batteries, I think it’s safe to say that unless I can make more somehow any trip across the Great River is out of the question. Also, just in case there are predators like that on this side that I haven’t seen yet, I’m going to ring the camp in sharp sticks. It might not keep them out, but mixed with magic and it should slow even the big ones down long enough for me to wake up and start teleporting.

This trip was a wakeup call for me, there are things in these woods that would eat a pony like me alive without hesitation, and I need to be ready for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note:
> 
> Alright, some hints from Sunsets journal as to how her expedition is going, I've got a bit of this written out to explain how her character changes from the Sunset who left Equestria to the Sunset that makes first contact with the humanity of this universe


	3. Chapter 3

Expedition Log: Cycle 52

Figured I should write down something like this eventually. This world has a completely different set of plants and animals, and although I’m not an expert at cataloguing or anything like that I should at least write down my notes.

Plants:  
● There are a great many mushrooms and berries in these forests, and although it’s annoying to keep checking to see if they’re safe to eat they are pretty tasty, especially compared to the bland or outright bad flavors of some of the food plants here  
● Ferns are very common, and in such massively different sizes and shapes than back home  
● Beyond that, even though they are different in size, color, and shape, most plants seem familiar enough to me.  
Animals:  
This is where it gets weird  
● There aren’t any mammals. It took me weeks to confirm, but unless there’s something I’m missing this world is populated by reptiles and amphibians, and bugs, and it’s bizarre.  
● One species I found is this weird salamander reptile thing, it walks on four legs like a pony, but it’s about as dumb as a regular animal, and it seems really lazy really. The only time I’ve felt threatened by one was when I got near its young, and they can be really threatening. They have these massive pinchers that sweep out in front of their mouth, and when they start waving them at you it’s clear that they mean business.  
● Then there’s my “friend” the finned reptile from across the river, bigger than a pony, scaly, fin along its back that is taller than it is, ugly. Not much else to say.  
● There’s some species of crab that lives in the grasslands near here, they just kind of live in the tall grass (which is weird, crabs back home live in water) and one of them gave me a nasty cut on my leg when I didn’t realize that the weird overgrown mound wasn’t a rock while walking by it. Thankfully, I’ve gotten used to checking ahead as I walk, because I once ran into one with pinchers large enough to take off my leg if I didn’t avoid it. Thankfully, they don’t seem to move that often, so I’ve cleared the tall grass from my camp, the area around the portal, and I’m starting to expand the cleared area down to Starswirl’s river so I don’t get paranoid walking for water anymore.  
● There are also giant velvet worms here. I learned about them when a pack, yes a pack of worms I am not joking, tried to jump me and spray me with webbing. It was really annoying, and I do my best to avoid those things whenever I can, but the crafty little bugs are hard to spot in the dim light in the woods. On the bright side, I’ve gotten good at getting webbing out of my fur, mane, and tail.

Expedition Log: Cycle 60

This is it. Ten percent of the way there (I think). I’ve seen all sorts of amazing things, and learned so many things, but none of it will mean anything if I don’t get back to Equestria and tell somepony. When I left, I wanted more than anything to prove that I was worthy of being a princess, just like Celestia. It seemed so simple, tame an alien world, come back with a new understanding of magic and nature, show everypony how amazing I was and finally get the respect I deserve, but I’ve had a lot of time to think over the last two moons, and it’s made me realize that I was a self-centered idiot. I had a good life there, studying magic under the ruler of Equestria, classmates that were amazed at my skill, a warm bed, running water, and all the magic I could use… I threw it all away for this dream, and now I feel like I’m living a nightmare.

I want to write Princess Celestia, I want to apologize and beg for her to save me, but on the other hoof, I know that even if I could get a message to her, if I do that I will never have what I gave up. I betrayed her, disobeyed a direct order, and if I come crying back to her… my life will never be the same. I’ve probably already been expelled, my things shipped back to my family… I can’t do it. Staying here is hard, but I’ve gotten used to it. If I go back now, if I pry open the portal and crawl through begging for forgiveness, I won’t be going back as the hero who tamed an alien world, I’ll be the wayward student who ran away and can never be trusted. Like it or not, I have to stay here, I have to succeed, or I’ll have given up everything for nothing.

This planet hasn’t killed me, and it isn’t going to. Every cycle I stay here I get stronger, my body growing more used to acting without magic and my spells more efficient at using what power I do have. I also learn more about the world around me. The hardest part is over, from now on it’s a question of endurance, of if I have the strength of will to use what I know to survive, and I know that I do. When this mess is over, I’ll walk back into Equestria as a hero, and then maybe this whole mess will be worth it.

Expedition Log: Cycle 92

I’m surprised by how easy it was to get used to life without a clock. Even though there are no obvious days or the like, I have a schedule, and it’s almost relaxing to keep to it. First, I wake up and have a small breakfast of water and some root plants (there are a few different species, but the ones I like the most are a sort of miniature purple carrot, which I’ve called Purple Carrots because creativity is hard). Then I spend some time checking on my enchantments, cutting points onto sticks and adding them to my fence, and just doing general maintenance work around the camp. When I run out of chores, I have a couple of fruits and some water for lunch, and then it’s time for the real work. I’ve got a lean-to where I keep magical ingredients, reagents, and a few pots with some very basic potions, and I spend a few hours (I think) a cycle studying magic and experimenting with new techniques and ingredients.

Sometimes I only do potion work, sometimes I go through my spellbooks and look to see if I can reduce the power requirements of spells without making them useless, and sometimes I poke and prod at the portal. While I don’t want to go back as a failure, having it open even a little would flood the area near here with magic, and then I would be able to go from surviving to thriving. With more magic, I could teleport around, build wards strong enough to keep any predators out, and even start thinking about actual expeditions instead of just sliding into a routine until I go home. I’m not probing it hard enough to risk breaking the mirror, but I’m not just sitting around and waiting.

Expedition Log: Cycle 111

I’ve fallen into a pattern, hard. Cycle after cycle of the same routine is starting to take its toll on me. I had dreams when I came through, ambitions, and here I am stuck in a rut and just doing what I can to survive while a whole unexplored world is right there. I don’t want to just sit around and do experiments in my camp for the rest of my time here, I want to explore!

So, I made a decision. I’m packing up the tent, securing what I can, and heading east, up Starswirl’s River. I don’t know what I’ll find out there, and that’s half the reason I’m going. I’ll leave this journal behind if I never come back so the next pony to go through the portal will know what happened to me, but hopefully I’ll be back soon to right again

Expedition Log: Cycle 131

I learned more about this world in that one trip than I have since my first days in this world. I began my hike easily enough, just following the river to the east, away from the setting sun, but after a couple cycles of walking, it started to get very cold. After the eighth cycle of walking the sun was so far down I could barely see, and the air was barely above freezing, and just as I was getting ready to turn around and head back, I saw something amazing: Starswirl’s River starts at a massive ice wall stretching as far as I could see, a massive barrier blocking anypony who wants to go further to the east.

I think I finally understand this world now. Half the world is in permanent daylight, and half is in permanent night, and the area I’m in, the area the portal is in, is in the small gap between them. The farther from the sun, the colder it gets, which is why there are massive glaciers everywhere, and I’d bet anything that if I walked towards the sun it would just keep getting hotter, a massive desert across half the planet.

Anyways, runoff from the glaciers feeds the river, which feeds the big river which… I guess goes to a big ocean or something? It’s a lot saltier than most rivers, I think that’s my next expedition once I get stuck in a rut again.

All-in-all, this was a pretty productive excursion. I might not have found any ancient ruins or magical vortexes or anything like that, but I learned more about this world and got out of my camp for a while, and when I made it back the wards and fence had kept any animals that might have messed with my stuff out of the camp, so all-in-all I’ll say that was a good trip.

Expedition Log: Cycle 150

A quarter of the way there. Maybe. Honestly with how often I stayed up for 20 hours straight, slept for 8, and then did it again back in Canterlot I might be at least 50 days closer than I think at this point, all that time has caused me to feel a bit… introspective. The more I think about why I’m here, the more of my own mistakes I’m forced to acknowledge. I came here looking to get out from Celestia’s shadow, to carve my own path in life and maybe even ascend like Cadance did, but lately, I think I’ve figured something out. Cadence didn’t _want_ to ascend when she did, and I’ll bet anything that when Celestia ascended, she didn’t either. Cadence ascended by using her love to defeat an evil, and she became Princess of love, which means that if I ever want to ascend, I need to perform a great feat of magic while embodying a concept the way she did. I don’t know why I thought I would ascend just by exploring an alien world. However, even if I don’t ascend after this, my time here has changed my life, and when I get back I will put everything I have into making a more stable portal to link this place to Equestria. I might not get to ascend from it, but hey, going down in history for opening up a whole new world is a nice consolation prize.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we have a bit more of Sunsets logs of her experiences.
> 
> There will be action in the next chapter, but I felt that writing this was a good way to give everyone a view of what sort of world this is, to make it feel more alive.
> 
> If you see anything you like, tell me about it so I can do more like it in the future, and if I did something that needs fixing let me know!


	4. Chapter 4

Sunset shifted her near-empty saddlebags onto her back and began to walk towards the forest. By now, walking to the woods to scavenge for food had become normal for her, and she tuned out as she tracked down various flowers, fruits, nuts, and roots to supplement the plentiful but nutritionally deficient reeds and tall grasses that grew by the rivers near her camp. _I knew from the portals spell matrix is mostly in Equestria and what I can see is just the bare minimum to keep the connection stable, but I think I can work around that. The connection is there even when the portal is off, so if I can just find a way to reach in and expand that constant connection, then thaumaturgical energy will flow from Equestria through the portal, like water from a full container through a hose, pushed by the different background energy levels! It won’t be as…_  
  
Her thoughts were interrupted by a sound that set every nerve in her body on edge, brought up every bad instinct her herbivore hindbrain had: the sound of a predator calling to its pack. Whipping around, she scanned the forest, her heart pounding as she tried to focus for even the hint of movement.

The sound of twigs breaking to her right was the only warning she got as some reptilian… _thing_ jumped out of the brush and attacked her. It struck before she could get a good view, and she only barely dodged the first strike. Taking a moment, her eyes locked on a sturdy branch, and with a flash of light she was there, clutching the trunk and watching the land below. _Oh dear Celestia what was that? I’ve never seen anything like that before, it was like a demented horror show version of a lizard mixed with a timberwolf!_ She watched as it pawed at the tree, shaking her perch with every strike. After a few minutes, it looked up at her, and even though it was an alien reptile wolf thing, Sunset could _feel_ the sheer hatred radiating off the creature before it turned away and left.

_… Alright then, I’m just… I’m just going to stay here for a bit, give it time to go somewhere else and find some other prey._ Sunset thought as she felt her heart finally start to calm down. _I can… I can go look for food somewhere else, north of Starswirl’s river maybe? Yeah, that sounds good._  
  
After a few more minutes, she gingerly slid down, constantly on edge for the creature to return. Double-timing it, she rushed through the woods back to her campsite. _Where did that thing come from? It looks too large for me to have missed it before now, is it migrating? Did it eat all the food in its last territory and relocate? Is it part of a pack? Why show up now? Not that I’m complaining, if it had shown up before I figured out low-energy_ _teleport_ _ation_ _I would be…_ She shoved the thought aside as she cleared the trees and walked the well-worn trail back to her campground. As she climbed the small hill, her blood ran cold as she heard the sound of snapping wood from her campground. Rushing forward, her worst fears were realized: the creature had followed her scent to her camp, her _home!_  
  
The monster had walked through her wards and fence like they were nothing, smashed her tent open, and scattered the gems from her magic circle across the dirt. Her books, the same books that had taught her how to survive after her poorly-thought through plan dumped her on an alien world, were scattered, and she saw a couple that looked like they had been ripped up. She took this all in in one moment of sheer terror, and then the monster turned towards her, hate and hunger in its eyes.

With a yelp, she dodged its first strike with a quick teleport, and then another, but it wasn’t enough. She could feel her reserves dropping fast, and the creature just wouldn’t let up! Every time she teleported, it would turn around, find her, and charge again after only a few seconds, she just didn’t have the power for a longer-range teleport, and there were no trees nearby for her to climb up.

With one last *pop!* of teleporting, she sheltered behind an intact portion of “fence”, hoping the sharpened sticks might at least scare the creature off from making a direct charge. No such luck though, and as it began to close the distance again she realized something: _It’s not going to stop! It’s too hungry to stop, or I pissed it off, or something, so the only way to stop it is… to kill it._  
  
Like most ponies, Sunset wasn’t that big on the whole “killing” thing, but as the revelation sank in and the predator closed the remaining distance, time seemed to slow as her body shifted to fight. With a flash, she arrived just beside the creature, smacking it with a buck from both her rear legs as it charged, sending it stumbling to the ground.  
  
 _Yes! Yes I did it! I… oh come on!_ She watched the creature stand up and glare at her, hunger filling its expression. Again it charged, and again she teleported to the side and bucked it to the ground, but this time it recovered before collapsing, and when she tried that tick a third time a clawed paw shot out and raked across her side, sending her sprawling.

_Oh_ _T_ _artarus, oh this is bad, oh dear Celestia I can’t stand up, I can’t stand! I can’t stand!_ She panicked as the creature rounded on her, marching forward with the air of a creature that knew it had won. _No, I’m not dying here! I didn’t survive this long just to die to some overgrown lizard! I’ve got to… got to…_ She looked around in a panic, searching for anything that could save her, and as the monster got closer, her eyes fell on one of the sharpened sticks, laying on the ground where it had been knocked aside, and an idea sprang into her head.

Her horn began to glow, and her opponent paused for a moment in confusion, giving her the opening she needed. That stick was enveloped in a cone of light, its structure strengthened magically as it was lifted into the air, pointed at the temporarily frozen monster, and flung with laser precision right into its open mouth.

The beast fell over with a pitiful whimper. With her heart pounding and adrenaline running through her system, Sunset stared at the massive reptilian corpse for a long moment before slumping over on the ground as the pain of her injuries caught up to her.

The cut on her flank was bleeding badly, and she poured every last bit of magic she had into every healing spell she knew, desperately trying to stem the bleeding for just a little longer, when her reserves ran dry. Normally, a unicorn running out of energy is only mildly annoying, but in a low-magic environment the absence of magic in a body can be physically painful, and when combined with the post-adrenaline rush crash and the trauma from the cut the shock was bad enough to knock Sunset out cold, laying on the edge of her ruined camp with an open wound.

\-----

When Sunset finally woke up, she wished she hadn’t. Her body felt _drained_ in a way it hadn’t since those first cycles where she had still been learning how to manage her powers, and her flank hurt in a way she had never truly experienced before. Looking over the wound, she saw that while her last bit of magic had kept her from bleeding out, it hadn’t done much more than that. To make things worse, she had plenty of other, less life-threatening cuts all over that side of the body from the same hit, and her rough landing had left her right side a mess of bruises and cuts.

_Alright Sunset, you got this, just… just got to get one of the crystals I left charging, and use it for a healing spell. You can do it, just stand up._ She forced herself to her hooves, and despite the sharp pain that seemed worse with every step, she walked into her camp. However, the magic circle had been disrupted, and the gems scattered, forcing her to dig around in the dirt for a gem with some charge in it.

_Alright, I got you. Oh yeah, come to momma._ She thought as she grabbed the gem telekinetically, pulling energy from it into herself. With that, the passive magic all Equestrians had returned with a vengeance, soothing her aches and cleaning infections from her open wounds, as she burned a good chunk of power to clean and begin to seal the cut on her flank.

With three more gems worth of power, she finished sealing the wound and flopped down on a small rock she used as a chair to observe her camp, munching on some food to fill the aches of hunger in her stomach. _Let’s see, the tent is in pieces, my food storage lean-to is wrecked, my books are… damaged, and just about everything else has been trampled or smashed a bit. On the bright side, my cooking utensils look intact, a little banged up but nothing major, and as long as I don’t have to eat raw food for the rest of my time here I can figure out the rest._ She looked down at her body and sighed. _Even magic won’t heal that wound quickly, I’m not a doctor and I don’t have the power for constant healing spells, but I can’t afford to sit around, I need to save what I can…_ she winced in pain as she tried to stand, pain shooting up her flank. _Alright, I’m just… just going to wait a bit, see if I can get enough energy for a bit more healing before I stand up again._ Her journal caught her eye, and to her surprise on further investigation her ink was still there, even if several of her quills had been snapped. _Need to replace those soon_ she thought as she reached out and grabbed her journal. Flipping through its pages, going through reams of notes and observations, she pulled up a blank page and began to write.

Expedition Log: Cycle 227

_If anypony finds this, you should know that this world is not the paradise my earlier notes might have implied. Earlier today, while I was searching for food in Meadowdale_ _Forest_ _I encountered a strange new creature…_  
  
 _…_  
  
 _… And so, I don’t know what will happen to me. I think I’ll be able to avoid infection with magic and rinsing the wounds, but I’m not certain, and if another of those things shows up… if another shows up I’ll try the same trick and pray to_ _whoever_ _is listening, if anypony is, that it works again._  
  
 _I’m writing this next part in the event that I die because of my wounds or an infection or some other monster, so unless you’re part of my family, stop reading. Celestia counts as family._  
  
 _I’m sorry. I would say I didn’t know what I was thinking, but I did, and I just didn’t care. You all have been nothing but supportive, gave me such a wonderful life back in Equestria that I completely abandoned in a tantrum, and I can never make up for that. If you’re reading this, that tantrum killed me, and I don’t know any words to describe how sorry I am for that._  
  
Sunset paused, looking at how much space was left on the page as she contemplated how to phrase the next part.

_Please don’t abandon this world because it took me. Despite the predators, the crabs trying to take off my legs, the weird pony-salamander-lizards, and all the other weird creatures here, I’ve fallen in love with this world, and I don’t want to let it be abandoned. There are so many amazing things here, and if the portal can be held open all the time then there’s no reason to not let everypony see them_ _._  
  
Sunset closed the journal, leaning back and looking over her ruined camp. With a glow, she cast another healing spell on her wound, and after a few moments forced herself to her hooves. The pain was still there, but it was manageable now, and with grim determination she got back to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And in this chapter, Sunset learns that the wilderness is not to be taken lightly.
> 
> Coming up in the next chapter: Sunset studies the portal some more and makes First Contact with humanity.


	5. Chapter 5

Expedition Log: Cycle 23 5

The cycles since the attack have been… difficult, to say the least. I got my magic circle back up and running, but some of my gems were cracked by the _monster._ I brought 17 gems with me, and as of right now I have only eleven functional, and eight are needed to keep the magic circle charging the other three. I’ll try experimenting with alternative designs, but as it is my magical situation is reaching critically low levels. On the bright side, I managed to get rid of the body, I dumped it on a couple of rotting logs from my failed attempts to build a canoe and shoved the mess into the great river. However, a lot of it was dangling in the water, and I guess that attracted river predators, because it only made it about a minute or so before something pulled it into the water.

Unfortunately, even though my wound healed without killing me from an infection (let’s just say thank Celestia that I got my magic circle running again, because it got bad there for a while) I now have a large scar on my side, which has changed the color of my fur in the area. The bad part isn’t the effect on my looks however, I can tell that it just… it didn’t heal correctly, that’s the only way I can put it. I still feel plenty strong, it’s just constantly using it, such as by walking to get food, or hauling logs to camp for firewood and building materials, makes it hurt. It hasn’t given out on me so far, so I guess I just have to live with the pain for a while longer and pray that when I get back to Equestria somepony can heal me properly.

Anyways, I’ve been finishing up my repairs, and I have a diagnosis: The tent is ruined, and although rain isn’t common, it happens enough that I need a replacement soon. Meanwhile, three out of my eight books, specifically Surviving in the wild by Bear Grills, Producing Potions: An Introduction by Smelly Brew, and Explorers of Equestria by Dusty Quill, have been damaged, their spines broken and pages torn out as that creature bit into them, I guess they smelled like me because I read them the most? I don’t know, but the fact is they’re damaged, and a lot of the information in them is just… gone.

That brings me to the big question: Why did that thing attack me? After thinking about it for a long time, I think I figured it out. While I was moving it down to the river, I noticed that I could see its bones on its stomach, even through the scales, and while it might be an alien, back on Equestria that is a sign of starvation. That made me feel better and worse: better because it really was it or me, there wasn’t anything else I could do once it attacked me because it was so desperate for food that nothing else I would have done would stop it, and worse because… well because this didn’t need to happen. If it had found something like those weird bug-lizards that hang out in the river shore, or the giant crabs in the grasslands, then it could have eaten well and never bothered me, but because I ran into it first it focused on me, and I had to kill it.

Moving on, I’m changing the layout of my camp as I rebuild. This time, I’m going to dig out a trench and use that dirt to build a barrier, and then I’ll put the spikes in that barrier. It’ll take longer, a lot longer, but I have time, and maybe with some passive wards that strengthen the spikes when something hit them I’ll actually be able to sleep at night without worrying that every sound is a new monster out to kill me. Anyways, I have a lot of work to do, and I still get a headache when using magic to write, so this is it for now.

\-----

As time passed, Camp Sunset was slowly rebuilt, bigger and better than before. Sunset used what power she had efficiently, and with no other predators arriving to ruin her work she made slow but steady progress. The ditch circling the camp not only provided material for a small barrier, but also drained away water during the rainstorms that struck seemingly without warning, and although the loss of her tent was a major blow, Sunset was able to build a semi-waterproof structure out of tarp and sticks, although a more permanent solution was needed.

With the perimeter rebuilt stronger than before, she made improvements within the camp, reducing the charging rate of the magic circle by reducing it to six crystals, which gave her five crystals loaded with energy for any expedition or emergency. Meanwhile, using half-remembered history lessons and vague guides in her books, she figured out how to identify and cut down trees from the edge of the forest, using an improvised sled made from the remnants of her rope to lug logs back to camp for the construction of a small cabin.

At first, she’d had a big dream of a building that included storage for food and neat samples, a laboratory, a bedroom, and a primitive bathroom using water from the drainage ditch to wash away “waste”, but after the first few cycles, and several breakdowns in the middle of the field as her scar flared up in pain at the exertion, she downgraded her ideas. Now the plan was for a one-room cabin to hold everything, with lean-to’s around the outside to keep whatever couldn’t fit inside somewhat sheltered. However, while the cabin itself was the easy part, between magic and trial-and-error it was relatively easy to get the logs stacked correctly, figuring out how to build a chimney from scratch was… well a bit difficult.

Her initial plan, to use stone, failed when she tried to pull up stones and realized how much magic it would take. Then her second plan, build it out of magically treated wood, failed when she tested the enchantment and it could not draw magic from the background at the current levels, which would mandate that she slot in a crystal or something to draw in power for it, cutting into her already critically low supply. Finally, she stumbled on some clay down by the river and decided _why not just use bricks? Give it a nice homely feeling._  
  
[Five cycles later]

“Alright you stupid lump of clay, I am your master! I command you to hold your shape and STOP STICKING TO THE FLOOR OF THE KILN!” Sunset screamed as she prepared to pull another test batch of bricks out of the kiln. “I am sick and tired of cooking outside! I will have a fireplace if it takes the entire rest of the time I have on this world, do you hear me!?!? I will not be denied!”

Grabbing one brick with telekinesis, it slid out of the kiln perfectly, no material lost to the floor or walls… but it also had another brick baked onto it. Sunsets eyes twitched as she looked over the entire batch, and something snapped in her mind. “YOU PATHETIC LUMP OF CLAY! I AM SUNSET SHIMMER, I SURVIVED MONSTERS AND HUNDREDS OF DAYS ALONE ON AN ALIEN WORLD, AND I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY A MOUND OF DIRT!”

The failed bricks said nothing, because they were bricks. Sunset threw them over the wall and they crashed down in a field as she fell to the ground and began to sob. “I just… was it really too much to ask for a fireplace in my dinky little one-room cabin, that I don’t even have a bucking _door_ for because I can’t figure out how to make a hinge?” She asked the sky, tears flowing down her cheeks. “Celestia, oh I’m so sorry, if I’d just… if I hadn’t been such a greedy, self-centered brat I would be safe and sound in Canterlot, preparing for an _actual_ expedition through the mirror, with plenty of help from ponies who know what they’re doing, and could talk to me, and could keep me from feeling like it’s all a giant waste of time!”

She laid there in the dirt for hours, gently sobbing, before her hunger forced her to get up and eat something.

Expedition Log: Cycle 288

It’s been a while since my last update, and honestly I’m not sure how accurate my cycle count is anymore, but I felt like this should be recorded. I finally had a full-on breakdown yesterday, screaming at objects, crying in the dirt, all that wonderful stuff. To be honest, I’ve seen this coming for a while, but I’ve been having a hard time recently with the rebuilding and mental health hasn’t been my primary focus for a while.

Well, that’s changing today. I’m going to start taking two cycles out of every ten “off”. Sure, I’ll still have chores and the like, but I won’t do any major construction work or studying. Honestly, I probably should have done this a long time ago, back in Canterlot I could get away with working all the time because somepony cooked for me, and kept the sewers working, and the guards kept any monsters far away from the castle, and if I ever needed time off I could just… stop, go on a trip, do something fun for a couple days. I can’t do that here, and that means I need to keep myself from burning out, because if I go past my limits, one mistake could snowball into a disaster.

Update on the portal: I’m pretty sure that I could force it open… for a few moments before whatever safeguards Starswirl set on the other side to prevent the creatures he sealed on the other side from doing literally that kick in and it all goes to hell. The crafty stallion built the portal in such a way that the vast majority of the spell matrices are in Equestria, and the only time somepony with access to one side can reach through and edit the other is when the portal is open, and if it was open I wouldn’t need to force it open. So in the end, the best case scenario is that I can access the spell matrices on the Equestrian side long enough to shut down the safeguards without closing the portal permanently, while the worst case scenario is I get rushed by the countermeasures and mess up, trapping myself here forever.

With that in mind, forcing the portal is officially something I will only do if the alternative is worse. I don’t know how that could happen, but having options never hurts.

\-----

There are aspects of the universe that Sunset Shimmer had arrived on that, as a lone unicorn stranded on the surface of a wild planet by herself, she was unaware of. She knew nothing of the human race in this universe, a human race that diverged from what we call “history” in 1870, even though the true differences are far older than that. This humanity had, over the last 20 years, slipped the surly bonds of Earth and laid claim to vast territories on Mars and Venus, which was only possible because in this universe all the planets of the inner solar system, Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury, hold atmospheres that humans can breathe, are loaded with life and civilizations for human empires and merchants to profit off of, and sit in an invisible sea called the Ether, through which ships can travel. This was discovered when Thomas Edison crossed the gulf between worlds in a prototype “ether flyer” in 1870, discovering that not only was Mars inhabited, but it was full of a vast multitude of riches that eager human empires, from the powerful British to the up-and-coming Germans to the rapidly modernizing Japanese, were eager to take a bite out of.

However, Sunset was not on Mars, she was on Mercury, a planet that few humans cared about. The perpetual rain of Venus hosted vast arrays of plants for eager chemical companies, Mars had its Liftwood, which allowed the construction of airborne vessels of a vast size, and Mercury had… a small, 300 mile wide temperate zone of eternal twilight, surrounded by lands of eternal day that at some points got hot enough that vast lakes of liquid metal formed on the surface, and a land of eternal night, so cold that in some places oxygen cannot exist in a gaseous form. For most of humanity, Mercury was a distraction, a minor piece that could, theoretically, be valuable sometime in the future once technology had advanced enough to take advantage of its lakes of liquid metal or explore the mysterious structures in the eternal night, but for now it was the home of a few dozen prospectors, a British outpost, and one Unicorn, scattered across the temperate zone with hundreds or thousands of miles between each other

However, after all of that time alone, Sunset Shimmer was finally going to meet one of the inhabitants of this universe, another soul who had run away to Mercury in the hopes of finding fame and glory, and the meeting of these two souls on this wild world would shake both civilizations for decades to come…

\-----  
  
_Fascinating, despite being linked by the closed portal at all times, the spell matrices on each end barely interact at all! It’s as if the entire spell is three spells, the Equestrian end, this end, and the portal itself, and they simply appear to act as one because of these complex mini-matrices that connect them…_ _What the tartarus was that!?!?_ Sunset whipped her head up as she heard a sound that was almost like a falling sky-chariot. In the sky above her camp something was falling through the sky. As it slid through the sky she watched it grow larger and larger, resolving from an indistinct blob into the shape of… _a ship!?!? Not even an airship, just a regular ship?! Falling from the sky? What the hay is going on here?_  
  
The strange impossible ship flew through the sky, passing only a few hundred yards over her head before crashing and skidding across the ground north of Starswirl’s River, coming to a rest about two or three miles to the north of Camp Sunset. Sunset took only a moment to stare at the impossible ship, her mind wondering what possessed somepony to build a metal boat that flies even as she stuffed her journal and every charged battery crystal she had and rushed out towards the crash sight.

Teleporting over the relatively small tributary Sunset ran across the grassland, burning magic to avoid the native life that might attack her as she rushed to her goal. _Somepony might be still alive in that wreck! Finally, after all this time I finally won’t be alone!_ Joy filled her from hoof to head as she ran forward, and by the time she reached the crash site she was near delirious with joy, and the shape of the ship filled her with even more happiness.

 _It’s still in one piece! It doesn’t even have holes in the hull! Oh Celestia the ponies_ _on board_ _probably survived!_  
  
“Hello! Anypony here!” She called out towards the ship.

For a few moments nothing happened, but then she heard something. A series of thumps and the sound of machinery from within the ship! Circling the craft, she found the noises were coming from a section of hull that, as she was watching, was pulled open by whoever was on the inside. Nearly jumping for joy, Sunset watched as a strange creature stepped out of the hatch.

The creature was bipedal, sort of like a minotaur but without the size difference between its upper and lower bodies, and it was absolutely covered in clothes except for a few spots where its skin was revealed. _Huh, no fur. Does have a mane though, so that’s weird. I thought manes went with fur… it’s staring at me._  
  
The creature’s eyes were wide and its mouth wide open as it stood in silence in front of her, and Sunset felt mildly annoyed. “Didn’t your parents ever teach you it’s rude to swear?” she snapped. “Seriously, you’re some naked monkey thing and I’m not staring at you.”

The creature shook its head and blinked rapidly at her words before responding… with a string of gibberish. Sunset felt like facehoofing as realization hit her. _Because of course it couldn’t speak the same language as me, that would be to easy! And I don’t know any translation spells because everypony speaks the same language in Equestria! Even Griffons and Yaks and Dragons! My spellbook better have something for this, or everything here is going to be very hard to explain._  
  
Putting a smile on her face she waved a hoof. “Hello. My name is Sunset Shimmer.” She gestured to herself as she spoke slowly and clearly, trying to project a trustworthy image through her body language.

It seemed to work, the strange creature said something else in its language, and then after a few moments where the two just stood staring at each other looked back into its ship and gestured inside. Sunset weighed her options. _On one hoof, it would be rude to refuse an invitation, on the other it could be a trap… I have enough energy to teleport out._  
  
That decided she walked forward, and her new host lead her into the metal vessel. It wasn’t that long of a walk, the craft was more like a boat than a ship, and soon her host was holding up… _Wait, is that a camera? They have_ _c_ _ameras! Well I mean I guess it’s not that surprising if they can make metal sky-ships but…_  
  
Sunsets musings were cut off by the cameras flash as the creature took several pictures of her. After a few photos the stranger started babbling on in its strange language, its excitability reminding Sunset of some of the more excitable students at Celestia's school, like little Twilight, always jumping around when she got a new book or manuscript to read…

 _Huh, I spent all that time resentful of her for cutting into my time with Celestia, and now that I’m away from her I miss her._ Sunset chuckled to herself. “I know you can’t understand me, but I haven’t had anypony… errr, any _one_ to talk to in a while so I’m going to keep talking.” she told the creature before heading towards the door. “Anyways, do you want to see my camp?”

Her host just stared at her blankly, and Sunset decided to just lead it to her camp. _Actions speak louder than words, and in this case it doesn’t matter how loud the words are because neither of us understand the others words._  
  
As she walked out the door, her strange visitor from the sky rushed to pack its camera and several other items that Sunset was surprised to recognize. _I guess that I shouldn’t be that surprised, there’s only so many ways to make a journal. At least it… she? It seems female, so I’m going to assume it’s a she._ Sunset pondered the gender of her new companion as they walked through the fields, following the path she had trampled down on the way in, and during the trip Sunset watched as the strange alien mare looked around, her eyes wandering across the landscape as she tripped over herself in the low gravity.

 _Huh, I guess she’s not from here, otherwise she’d be used to how light everything is. Does that mean her ship can travel between worlds? Maybe that’s why it fell, it must be some sort of magic, and it ran out of energy! Could I use it to get back to Equestria early? Oh imagine Celestia’s face when I fly in on a metal ship with an alien!_  
  
As the pair approached Starswirl’s River, Sunset’s new companion looked over the river and pointing at Camp Sunset, saying something in her strange language before looking at the river itself and frowning.

 _Oh, she’s worried about crossing the river. That makes sense, not even every_ _Unicorn_ _can teleport, especially in a low-magic environment like this! Luckily for her I already figured it out._  
  
“Hey” She said, mainly to get the mare’s attention. When she turned to face Sunset, Sunset walked up to her, wrapped a leg around her, and tapped deep into one of her batteries. Her guest squirmed and tried to kick away, but sunset just held on as she focused on the spell. Her horn began to glow, and in an instant the pair were across the river, just outside Camp Sunset’s entrance.

At that point Sunset let go of her guest and walked into the camp. “Well, come on in!” She said, waving her hoof for good measure. Once inside, Sunset felt embarrassed as her guest excitedly looked around at her camp. “It’s really nothing special, I would have been able to build something better in a week if I had all my magic.” She said, her words falling on uncomprehending ears. _I really need to find a translation spell._

\-----

Gertrude Bell was ecstatic. Right in front of her, it’s nose stuck in an ornate book that would not have been out of place in her fathers library, was a unicorn! Not merely a horned horse, but an actual fae creature capable of magic, like transporting the pair of them across the river in an instant! She obviously had other magics as well, that book was far to well-preserved for this environment, and the way she had retrieved it, by enveloping it in a cloud of magic as her horn lit up with the same and pulling it towards her, only proved the point.

 _She is truly a marvelous creature, and intelligent as well! This is the discovery of a lifetime, proof that father was wrong about me, that I do have what it takes to be an explorer! I must see if I can induce her to board my ship, if I can get it airborne and return with her to Earth…_ Her musings were cut short as the strange orange unicorn’s eyes widened in excitement and it began to murmur to itself. A few moments later, she jumped to her feet, rushing up to Gertrude and babbling something in its strange, melodic tongue.

At Gertrude's incomprehension, the unicorn huffed in frustration before beginning to pace. Once again, after a few moments Gertrude could see an idea strike the creature, and it turned to her and… stood up on it’s back legs, with one of its front ones braced against the wall of its abode. As Gertrude watched the sight of an orange unicorn standing on two hooves, the unicorn pointed a front hoof at her, and then slowly lowered herself to the ground. She repeated this action a couple more times before Gertrude understood and sat on a smooth rock nearby. Taking only a moment to grab a pair of large crystals from a bag, the unicorn was soon upon her, horn pressed against head as it began to mutter.

Gertrude nearly panicked, it felt like something was prying at her mind, but the unicorns weight kept her seated and the sensation passed in a moment. As her host stepped back and opened her mouth, she was not expecting to understand the next words out of its mouth.

“Sorry about that, I’ve never cast that spell before, and the book said direct contact was the best way to guarantee that it worked. It did work, right? Can you understand me?” A feminine voice came from the unicorn, stunning Gertrude.

However, she was a proper English woman, and she did not allow her hosts question go unanswered for long. “I can understand you fair lady.” She said, her mind reeling as she tried to process the fact that not only could this unicorn speak English, it spoke it with an American accent. In her shock, Gertrude’s brain noticed the two crystals the unicorn had picked up were now glowing brightly as she held them in her magic.

“Oh, don’t be so formal! I haven’t had anypony to talk to in over a year, although you aren’t a pony… you look sort of like a minotaur, but you don’t have the fur or horns of one… Anyways, my name is Sunset Shimmer, and you have no idea how glad I am to meet you! Like I said, I’ve been alone for more than a year, and I was starting to go crazy!”

 _Minotaurs? She knows what a minotaur is but not a human?_ “My name is Gertrude Bell ma’am, and I am a human. Specifically, I am an Englishwoman.”

Sunset cocked her head at that last remark before realization dawned. “Ohhhhh, so that’s like what type of human you are. We have something like that to! I’m a pony, but I’m specifically a Unicorn. Anyways, it’s a pleasure to meet you, and I’m sorry if I was a bit rude getting the translation spell setup, but I was just so excited to finally have someone to talk to that I couldn’t help it!”

“That… that is understandable Lady Sunset.” Gertrude replied. _Over a year with no one to talk to? I barely made it through the month and a half on the flight from Earth, I cannot imagine an entire year._  
  
Sunset got a confused look at her words. “Lady Sunset…? I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to disappoint you, I’m not a lady, just a spoiled brat who decided that going to an untouched, alien world was a good idea.” She said flippantly as Gertrude felt a wave of unease settle in her stomach.

 _Her father glared at her, his expression furious. “Gertrude, this marriage will secure our families place in society, and I will not let you ruin that because of some ridiculous scheme to become an explorer.”_  
  
_“But Father…”_  
  
_“That is enough, Gertrude. You are acting like a spoilt child! Return to your room, I will have the servants bring you dinner later.” He dismissed her with a wave, crushing her hopes and dreams…_  
  
“Hey, Gertrude, you doing alright?” Sunset called, looking at her with some concern.

“I… Yes, my apologies. I was… caught up in a bad memory.” She responded. “Forgive my rudeness, but you called this an alien world… are you from a different planet? We have legends of creatures like you at home, but they widely regarded as fables and myths, no one has ever seen a unicorn on Earth.”

Sunset perked up. “Oh? that’s interesting.” She said as she walked over to the stone obelisk in the center of the camp. “This is actually a portal, for three days every twenty moons it opens, linking this world with my home. If you stick around long enough, I could even take you through next time it opens!”

 _A portal to another world? Truly she is a creature of great magic, but she seems nothing like the unicorns of legend, although…_  
  
“Pardon me for asking, but am I the first human you have seen on this world?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, otherwise I would have tracked them down and talked to them.”

“Even if they were male?”

Sunset looked at her like she’d just grown a second head. “Of course, why would that matter?”

“Well, there are legends that unicorns are only accepting of young maidens.”

“... What is a maiden? Is that another type of human?”

Gertrude’s face heated as she explained exactly what a maiden was, and when she did Sunset gave her a look of sheer bewilderment. Of course, Gertrude had no way of knowing what Sunset said, because at that moment the glowing crystals went out, and the next few words out of Sunsets mouth were a string of melodious, and completely incomprehensible, neighs, although from the body language she could tell that Sunset was not happy with the revelation.

\-----

[En Route to Mercury, Ether Ship _Good Fortune_ ]

David Williamson was on track for the payday of a lifetime. Thomas Bell, owner of a massive network of ether flyer shipyards, producing the vast fleets needed to sustain the British Empire across the four worlds it held territory on, was paying him and his men a fortune for this job. Mr. Bell’s daughter Gertrude had apparently run off with one of her fathers new ether fliers to escape an arranged marriage, and Mr. Bell was paying an incredible sum for the safe return of both his daughter and the ship, a top-of-the-line prototype that hadn’t even been christened when young Gertrude left for Mercury.

Williamson, being the only man nearby with both a ship that could reach Mercury and the skills to track her down once there, had been able to negotiate a kings ransom for this job, and when his four man crew had heard how much their shares would be they had moved heaven and Earth to prepare to depart the next day. Onboard the _Good Fortune,_ spirits were high. After all, how hard could tracking down one spoiled heiress be? She probably would lose her nerve and be waiting for them at Princess Christiana Station, the only settlement on the empty world. If she wasn’t there, then they would have a problem, but him and his men were professionals, if Gertrude was swill alive when they found her, they’d take her home to her father, no trouble at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a bit longer chapter than the last couple, but once I started writing I didn't want to stop!
> 
> Anyways, Gertrude is actually a canon character in Space 1889. Well, sort of. She's mentioned as a potential encounter for a party exploring Mercury on page 119 of the Mercury Sourcebook, and I took the basics of her characterization (daughter of a wealthy industrialist, stole a prototype ether-flyer from her fathers shipyard, crashed on Mercury and is persued by a band of professional mercenaries to bring her and the ship back) from that section. Everything else about her, as well as the entire characterization of the Mercenaries, is built on that foundation.
> 
> With that in mind, I have a question for more experienced writers, if any are reading this: should I tag this story OC?
> 
> Regardless, let me know what you think of this chapter, and if you have any questions ask away!
> 
> [4] The mystery of The Needles is unexplored in Space 1889, so I am coming up with my own explanation, which Sunset will be looking into in the future.
> 
> Anyways, let me know what you think of this chapter!


	6. Chapter 6

Sunset Shimmer was speechless. Well, that wasn’t exactly true, it would be more accurate to say that Sunset had run out of ways to express how she felt about her guests' explanation.

_What sort of perverted Unicorn goes to another world and tells them they can only be approached by female virgins!? Was it Starswirl? If it was then I am renaming that river, he does not get a river named after him if he spread that sort of myth about us!_ She berated the nameless idiot in her mind as she paced silently through her camp and Gertrude sat off to the side, nervously watching her. _Alright, calm down Sunset, she just told you a myth, and she just survived her flying ship crashing down in the middle of a field, freaking out like this won’t help. Just… just calm down, get the spell going again, and talk it out._

With a glow, the translation spell reactivated and Sunset turned to face her guest.

“So, that rumor is not true, in any way. I have no way of telling if you are a ‘maiden’, and honestly I don’t know why I would care if I could.”

“I understand, and I apologize for repeating such a slanderous claim about your race.”

Sunset shrugged and sat down across the fire pit from her guest. “It’s alright, it’s not like you’re the one who came up with it.” _and when I find out who did I’ll make sure every history textbook in Equestria talks about what a pervert they were!_ “Anyways, tell me about yourself! Or I can tell you about myself, either works fine, It’s been so long since I’ve been able to talk to someone that I really don’t care what we talk about as long as we talk. What do you want to talk about?”

Gertrude was not prepared for a unicorn, a magical creature of myth and legend, to babble at her like an eager child, but after the initial shock died down she found herself swept along with Sunset’s enthusiasm. “Well, perhaps we could trade stories about our homes?” She pulled out a notebook and prepared to write. _This is it, a chance to be the first human to discover an entirely new civilization!_

“Well, like I already mentioned, I wasn’t thinking right when I came through the portal. You see, I’d just gotten in a big argument with Princess Celestia about my magic studies and how much respect I deserved, and I was convinced that if I just went and tamed a new world I’d get the respect to convince her to make me a princess. Of course, at the time I was just angry that Cadence got to become a Princess and I didn’t, but after I took a few moons to think it through I realized why that was a stupid idea.”

Gertrude stared at her for a moment, her pencil frozen over her notebook as she tried to process what she’d just heard. “I’m sorry, but I feel like I am missing something. Could you explain more about this… Princess Celestia, and Cadence, and… becoming a princess? Do you mean she was adopted into the royal family?”

Before Sunset could respond, her stomach growled, and she blushed in embarrassment. “Maybe I should get some food going first, and we can tell stories while we eat?” Gertrude nodded in response, and Sunset got to work building a fire, chatting the whole time.

\-----

_Well this dinner has been… enlightening._ Gertrude thought, watching Sunset out of the corner of her eye. The tales about her homeland, a land ruled by an immortal Princess, who refused any higher title despite ruling a realm large enough and rich enough to overshadow several empire on Earth, such as the Austrians, the Japanese [1], or the Ottomans, and who raised and lowered the sun and moon every day had quickly passed beyond even the wildest adventure fiction and risen straight into the realm of pagan myths, with the noted exception that judging from Sunset’s own magical abilities there was likely much more support for these stories than most pagan tribes had for their religions.

However, when she had asked Sunset if this Celestia was some sort of goddess, the unicorn had laughed at the very idea! “Celestia doesn’t like being worshiped.” she had said. “She said that anyone who asks to be worshiped doesn’t deserve to be worshiped.” Sunset told her, and if that wasn’t enough the tale of Princess Cadence left Gertrude stunned. It sounded like something out of a fairy tale, and yet Sunset insisted it was real, and as she explained Gertrude finally understood what her host had meant when she called herself a “spoiled brat”.

_If there exists a perfect example of entitlement, demanding that an immortal ruler raise you to her level before you have even reached 20 years of age is it._ The Englishwoman though as Sunset focused on her bowl of soup, avoiding eye contact as she finished recounted the story of her arrival on Mercury. _Although she at least seems aware of her own hubris._

“Well, that is quite the tale.” She said diplomatically.

“Yeah… looking back I made a lot of mistakes coming here, and Celestia is probably angry with me… but hey, I’m the first unicorn to meet a human since… well probably since before she took the throne! Plus there’s this whole empty world to explore and new magic to study, so that’s nice…” she trailed off, staring at the fire with a sigh.

After a few heartbeats of silence, Gertrude spoke up. “Perhaps we should discuss a different subject. Would you like me to tell you about how I came here and my own homeland?”

Sunset nodded, happy for the change of subject, and Gertrude began to speak. “I am from London, capital of the British Empire and home to Queen Victoria herself. It’s a vast city, full of industry and wealth, sitting at the center of an empire that stretches across multiple worlds. Those worlds are linked by ether fliers, ships that rise high enough into the atmosphere of a world for ether propellers to grab onto the ether that all planets exist within and journey to distant worlds. My father gained most of his wealth through shipyards that turn liftwood harvested on Mars into ether fliers, and my ship is a prototype from his factory, which is likely why I’m still alive after that crash.”

With a sigh, she thought back to the happier times of her childhood. As a child I would read the tales of the expeditions to Venus, adventures across the dusty canals of Mars, even though my father said it was ‘improper for a woman to go gallivanting through the ether’ I always wanted to have some adventures of my own but… my father disapproved.” She said, the memory of her father reprimanding her for “undignified” behavior coming back to her.

“When he came to me two months ago with the news that I was to be wed to the heir of some noble house to improve our families standing, I was furious. He had with one move crushed my hopes and dreams of being an explorer, and in my anger, I stole a ship from the yards and charted a course. After that, I spent nearly fifty days weightless in the ether between worlds, and when I arrived on Mercury, my inexperience caused my ship to crash.”

  


Leaning back, she was amazed at how much lighter she felt having admitted her sins. _Father may never forgive me for this, but I don’t care. I’m on Mercury having dinner with a Unicorn, and he’ll never be able to take that from me._

“Wait, wait wait, hold on a moment.” Sunset spoke up. “Why would you being a woman be a problem? I mean, I could understand it if he was just overprotective, but why would your gender have anything to do with it? Aren’t you guys ruled by a queen? Why would she allow people to say women can’t go on adventures?”

Gertrude said nothing, staring at Sunset with a stunned expression as the unicorn waited for an answer. After a few moments Sunset noticed tears forming in the Englishwoman’s face, and she felt a wave of guilt. “Look, if you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine but-”

“No, it’s just… it’s nothing. I was simply not expecting your response.” Gertrude responded, her eyes still watering. The two sat in silence for a moment before Sunset moved over to Gertrude.

“Look, I don’t know much about humans, or comforting people… or even being friendly… but you know what? If your dad wanted to keep you from being an adventurer just because of what junk you’ve got, he’s a jerk. In fact, that ship you took? That’s his payment for being a jerk to you and telling you you couldn’t be an explorer.”

At that, Gertrude let out a soft laugh. “That is certainly a unique way of putting it.”

“Huh that worked?” Sunset asked in amazement, drawing an amused look from her new friend. “I mean, I’ve just never really done this whole comfort someone thing before, I was kind of a jerk to all the other students back home…” She trailed off awkwardly as Gertrude chuckled to herself. “So, moving on now that that’s out of the way, I have about a million questions for you and I need to ask them quickly since I think I’ve only got a few minutes left in these crystals… and they’re my last ones, and they only recharge about two and a half crystals a cycle… I might not have thought this through.

“What is this… charge?”

“Oh, well for some reason this planet has a really low level of background thaumaturgical energy relative to Equestria, which means that my spells have to rely entirely on my internal energy reserves instead of any in the environment, which burns through my reserves like crazy, so I used a few of the crystals I brought with me to rig up a device to concentrate what little energy there is into some other crystals so I can use them as a reserve for spellcasting. It’s actually pretty simple once you understand Starswirl’s fifth theorem for Thaumaturgical interactions and how it interacts with Mistmane’s theorems and… and that can wait for later.” She said, visibly restraining herself. “Sorry, it’s just been so long since I talked to someone and this whole situation is so weird that as soon as a topic I’m comfortable with came up I just started babbling and wow I sound like Twilight when I ramble.”

“Who?”

“Oh, Celestia’s new student, a bit younger than me, smart girl, likes to babble about stuff she read.” Sunset sighed and shook her head. “I miss the little brat, even if she did cut into the time I had with Celestia.” [2]

Gertrude nodded as she tried to find the words to respond to the exposition she had just received. “Well… perhaps we could work together to make a plan for the future?”

Sunset smiled as she rushed to pull out her journal. “Alright, let’s start by talking about what our plans were, then we can figure out how to work together! My plan is pretty simple, like I said I’m just going to wait here until the portal opens, go through, and try to make the connection permanent. What’s your plan?”

_She seems incredibly friendly. We have only been speaking for less than an hour and she already is looking to make plans with me stretching months into the future. Perhaps it is a result of being alone for so long? I know I would rather stay near her than be alone again, and I only spent the few weeks of my trip alone._ “Well, originally my plan was to visit Kelvins land...” she trailed off at Sunset’s look of incomprehension. “The coldest portion of the night side of Mercury, there are constant electromagnetic storms that stir up the frozen air, and everyone who has studied Mercury is convinced that _something_ is beneath the ice, waiting to be discovered. I have the maps and charts in my ship, but they’re incomplete. However, I was more referring to our plans for the next few days and weeks.”

Sunset nodded. “Right, yeah that makes a lot more sense. Maybe as a first step, we could see about moving your ship over here to my camp? Then we can go over each others notes and be nearby if something attacks.”

“Is that truly a major concern?” Gertrude asked, and in response Sunset showed her her scarred flank.

“I got this scar when a monster a couple times my size jumped in here and ripped up a lot of my camp.” She said, watching as Gertrude’s eyes widened and she agreed that staying close together would be for the best. After that, the discussion turned to where to put the ship, and if it could even be moved, and before either knew it the spell ran out of power and they were stuck making incomprehensible noises at each other, and after a few moments the two simply parted ways as neither could understand anything more than basic body language.

\-----

[The next day]

Sunset stood just inside Gertrude's ship, watching as the human woman unloaded a chest full of books and maps about all the worlds known to humanity. As she did, she looked around at the strange wood that made up most of the ship. Contrary to her initial impression, the metal plating was merely a thin layer outside a solid hull of “liftwood”, a martian wood that was somehow lighter than air.

“So, this liftwood stuff the inner hull is made from… you said it’s only found on Mars?” She asked Gertrude, who was currently going over diagrams of the ships systems to figure out how to get it flying again.

“Not just anywhere on Mars, only in liftwood highlands on Mars, every attempt to grow liftwood outside those areas has failed, and the Canal Martians have been making attempts for centuries.”

Sunset pondered that. Trees whose wood could float and be fashioned into massive ships that flew through the sky… she would have to research it. Maybe Gertrude had some spare planks she could borrow? After all, who would build a ship and not include a few planks to repair damage with?

Shaking her head, she picked up one of the books she had been given and began to read:

_“WELCOME TO Conklin's Atlas of the Worlds and Handy Manual of Useful Information, or Conklin's for shor,. an extensive, but by no means exhaustive, collection of maps and essays concerning the worlds of the inner Solar System._ ” [3]

Skimming through pages after page of introductions and sources that the author had used, most of which meant nothing to her, she finally got to the good part. First off was a diagram, the sun, four planets, and asteroid belt of the inner solar system laid out as if looking on them from above, with the “ether wakes” of each planet shown. _Huh, just like ships through the ocean… except with planets. This ether gets more interesting the more I read about it._ She thought as she read, flipping through pages and making notes of important topics when all of a sudden the words lost all their meaning and she found herself staring at a pile of nonsense.

With a sigh, she looked over and confirmed her fears: Gertrude had left the room, and the spell had collapsed without close contact between them. _I need to figure out how to communicate without this spell, with it I can only read for an hour a day and only when I’m near Gertrude! There’s to much to learn for me to go that slowly!_

After tracking down Gertrude and explaining the situation, Sunset found herself lounging on the upper deck of the boat as Gertrude checked the machinery that let the ship actually steer when in the air. Turning back to the book, she continued onwards.

Mercury:

The World River

_Huh, I wonder why they call it that… no way. No bucking way. THE RIVER GOES ALL THE WAY AROUND THE PLANET!? WHAT?!_

Re-reading the book, she took in every word. “… _circles the globe, its flow driven by Coriolis effects rather than gravity. The World River is fed by rains and drainage from its watershed. And when the World River winds near the Ice Sheath, it is fed by the icebergs of continuously crumbling glaciers…” This is insane! How can something like this even exist? There’s nowhere near enough magic in this world to keep something like this going, so it can’t be tha…_

Her mind went blank as she turned the page and read the next part.

_“Waterfalls and currents are encountered more often than not on the World River. Quite unique, though, are the so-called Water Stairs, where the River flows over several stepped plateaus with an altitude difference of nearly 330 feet, or 100 meters. The real peculiarity is that the waters flow uphill!”_

Blinking, she stared at the helpful drawing of the phenomenon in front of her, her mind trying to square the minuscule amounts of magic in this world with the image of water flowing upwards.

“Gertrude!”

“Yes Sunset?”

“Is this book accurate?”

“Yes! Conklin’s is the finest collection of knowledge on the inner solar system there is!”

_This is magic. The World River is magic, it has to be… I need to run tests, I need to research these falls… but I can’t go there, if the portal opens… I’ll open the portal, then I’ll go. In fact, once the portal opens, I’m traveling all the way! I’m getting a boat, and sailing down the river until I get back here! Yeah, and then I’ll actually get to see this stuff and work on it myself._

With new determination, Sunset got back to work, making a note of all the landmarks of the World River as she made a list of sights to research on her next great adventure. Of course, she would have to survive her current one first, but she was more than confident in her own ability to do so.

\-----

Gertrude was exhausted after hours and hours of running over the propellers and control surfaces on the outside of her ship. At first, she’d been able to talk about some of the wonders of the solar system with Sunset to stave off total boredom, but soon enough the unicorn had run out of thaumaturgical energy and the conversation had stopped. Thankfully, without any way to read the books, Sunset had started helping her go over the hull, taking advantage of the fact that words really weren’t needed when she could just rap her hoof on the metal to point out holes for Gertrude to mark.

However, even with Sunset’s help, the conclusion was not good. The ship had lost most of its momentum before hitting the ground, and the steel around it was designed to survive the harsh environment of the wilds of the solar system, but even with that the bottom of the plating had been torn open by friction, and rivets popped out and plates separating all along the outer hull even at the top of the ship, completely opposite from the impact zone. Beyond that, the liftwood inner hull had warped and several boards had shattered, which was why the normally lighter-than-air ship was resting in the Mercurian soil instead of floating away.

Looking at the solar boiled, which concentrated solar energy to power the ether propeller and other systems on the trip, Gertrude considered how much weight could be saved by removing it. _This ship needs a shipyard, or at least a skilled team of workingmen, before it will fly the ether again, and until then this and the ether propeller are just dead weight. But how could I remove them…_

She turned to look at Sunset, who was roaming over the ship as if she could understand it just be feeling it with her hooves. Of course, given everything else she’d seen from the unicorn, she would not be surprised if that was the case. With a small grimace, she clambered back down into the ship, her muscles aching even under the lower gravity of Mercury after more than 40 days in zero-gravity.

Looking around, she watched as Sunset continued to prod at the exposed liftwood, the curious unicorn varying between acting like a normal animal at one moment and an intelligent, insightful woman the next. The contrast was stark, and as she watched she found herself thinking about the future. Eventually, Sunset would reopen the portal to her own world, and when that happened, what would happen to humanity? Or if the men who ran the empire decided that Equestria would go the way of India, what would happen to Sunset’s people?

Her peoples casual gender egalitarianism stood in stark contrast to the morals of Britain, where men and women are explicitly divided by law, and Gertrude had enough experience with the sort of men who rose to power in London to know that they would not take kindly to nonhuman women treating them as equals. The greater contrast though, was between how Sunset described Princess Celestia and what Gertrude knew of Britain's own ruling class. The upper levels of British society still refused to treat men like her father as their equals because of his lack of a noble title, something her arranged marriage was supposed to solve for his eventual grandson, and the less said about their treatment of men who had to work the mines and fields to feed their vast estates the better, meanwhile according to Sunset Celestia had taken her in as a student, giving her hours a day of personal attention to teach magic despite her complete lack of a noble title. The contrast was stunning, and Gertrude worried that some of the men, especially the ones her father had over for dinner regularly, would see the existence of a nation that went against the “natural order of things” as an insult, one they must correct as soon as possible.

With a sigh, Gertrude turned back to the hull. _It’s silly to worry about these things now. I have much greater problems that I must handle before those questions need to be answered._

\-----

Expedition Log: Cycle 323

Ever since Gertrude crashed, everything has changed. My entire routine has been disrupted, there’s more work to do to get her ship over to my campsite, and the more we tell each other about our home the more questions I need to ask her. However, I only get enough power to run the translation spell an hour or so a day, and that’s if I do nothing else with that power. Needless to say, my life has gotten a lot more interesting.

The first major issue we had to deal with was her ship, after all with how far away it is from my camp it makes pooling resources and working together very difficult, so she pulled out some manuals and we tried to figure out how to get a damaged airship back in the air. In the end, we ended up carrying a lot of her supplies to me camp on foot, which was painful with my injury and burned a lot of power from teleporting over Starswirl’s River, but once we started carting out her books and clothes we finally got the ship light enough that even with the damaged liftwood segments it could float, and then I got to ride in it! I know there’s balloons and pegasi carriages back home, but this was something special, this was an actual ship that went through the sky like it was water!

After that, we put it on the hill just a few yards east of Camp Sunset, which was difficult because the hill wasn’t exactly flat, but the only flat lands turns into mud whenever it rains, and we were worried that the ship might just sink into the muck if we left it there. Anyways, we put her supplies back in and a few big rocks just to make sure it wouldn’t go anywhere, and then we had a meal of canned food from Earth, and I learned something very interesting.

_“So your home world has all of these same foods?” Gertrude asked, looking at her with surprise._

_“Yeah, that’s weird…” Sunset said, frowning at a can of apples as she chewed her last bite. “They even taste like apples… I mean I’ve never had an apple that tastes like this specifically, but I can still tell from taste that it’s apple.”_

_“Fascinating. With your world being host to many of the same plant species as our own, and the myths about races from your world… There must be some sort of connection, deeper than a few wayward explorers.”_

Turns out they have apples, hay, carrots, and all sorts of other Equestrian plants on Earth as well. There has to be some sort of connection there, I mean, the word for their home planet is the same as Earth Pony, that can’t be a coincidence!

Also, apparently they have ponies on Earth, but they are basically just animals, which was kind of weird to hear, and if I’m being honest it just raises even more questions, but that’s a mystery for someone else to solve.

Unfortunately, the ship's library is nowhere near enough to confirm anything, and we’ve basically agreed that it’ll be something we have to figure out once I stabilize the portal home. I mean, I say “we” but really it’ll probably be a load of researchers from Canterlot, because it’ll be a lot of book work and I’d rather go out and get hooves-on work done. Fortunately, we have a few leads for that:

There are several structures throughout the inner solar system that seem impossible, or magic, the World River is one of them, and I’ll be trying to look into it if I can avoid getting eaten by the things that live in it. Longer term, there’s a few other features that I could look into, but the big ones are The Needles, a series of spires made out of a metal that no explorer has been able to get samples off of. They are clearly not natural, being giant obelisks much like the one the portal is located in, except made out of metal instead of stone and being much larger. They are spaced around the planet, 42 in total, and from what I’ve read about them they are all perfectly located on the midpoint between the day side and night side of Mercury. Some are in the middle of the World River, or when the river turns off the centerline they are on mountains or down gulleys, but they are always right in the center.

Once I’ve gotten the portal open permanently, I’m going to find the nearest one. According to Conklin’s, they are all 226.78569 miles apart, one forty-second of Mercury's circumference. I could go now, with how much longer it will be until the portal opens I’ve got time, but… I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel safe to wander off ever since that monster attack, and Gertrude's ship barely made it from the crash site to the camp. She says she can get the engines fixed if I give her enough time, and if she can we could use the ship to visit the nearest Needle, but if she can’t we’d have to go on foot, and with my scars that’s just not happening.

On a more positive note, I think we’re finally starting to work out a way to understand each other without the translation spell. Neither of us can talk without it, but we’ve got things like “come here” and “lift that” handled, which makes it a lot easier to focus on work when I don’t have to keep the spell running. Anyways, I’m going to get back to work soon, we’re going to go over old survey reports and try to figure out how far we are from the one outpost her people have here, Princess Christiana Station. I was surprised that she didn’t know, but I guess she wasn’t really paying attention when she started crashing.

\-----

[Princess Christiana Station]

“She’s not here.” David Williamson spat out the words as if they were a curse. “Our easy payday just got a lot harder lads, no one here’s seen any sign of her.”

A wave of muttered cursing came from his crew as he pressed on. “But we always knew this was a possibility, and we’re equipped for the task. The good Miss Bell thinks of herself as an adventurer, and the governor had a list of sights that warranted further investigation’ that the last few surveys found, I’ll be working with his assistant to make a list and an itinerary for the trip.”

At the murmuring from his crew, he raised his hands in exasperation. “Look, I ain’t happy about it either, but if we want to get paid we’ve got to try. Now off with ye, the governor wants me to meet some boffin in the laboratories they got set up here, so go on and enjoy yourselves, this is the only civilization on the entire bloody planet and we won’t be back for a long while.”

With that, the men scattered with a load of grumbling, taking in the “civilization” of a small station with fewer than a hundred people that is, when the planets orbits are best aligned, 35 days from Earth. As they did, David shook his head as he looked out on the eternal sunset. While he'd always known that they might have to search the planet for Gertrude, something about this whole situation felt… off, as if he was meddling with something far bigger than himself. As quickly as it arrived, the feeling was gone, and he turned back towards the governor's house. There was work to be done, this was no time for baseless superstition.

home to her father, no trouble at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] At this time, the Japanese are wrapping up the Meiji restoration, and only a few months ago adopted a modern, western-style constitution. Although fun fact, Sunset arrived on Mercury the same year Nintendo was founded, selling trading cards in Kyoto
> 
> [2] So, I know in the comics Sunset left Equestria when Twilight was a little kid, but that doesn’t make sense to me. The same comic shows her entering the human world in the same form she was in in the movie, a teenage girl, and she doesn’t seem that much older than Twilight in any of her appearances, so I’m headcanoning her as only a couple years older, and Twilight's ignorance of her is due to either A) Twilight not caring about anything but her studies and/or B) Necessary exposition for the sake of the plot.
> 
> [3] This is actually the intro to the official atlas of Space 1889, which I am mining for information about the solar system for Sunset to learn about.
> 
> [4] The mystery of The Needles is unexplored in Space 1889, so I am coming up with my own explanation, which Sunset will be looking into in the future.
> 
> Anyways, let me know what you think of this chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To anyone who is reading this, I just realized I swapped chapters 5 and 6 during the mass upload, fixed now.

Personal Notes of Gertrude Bell: Day 20 After Landing

I continue to marvel at the whims of chance that brought me here. Mercury’s Twilight Zone, the only livable section of the entire planet, is a 300-mile-across band wrapping more than 9,500 miles across the planet, and when I lost control of my craft upon disengaging the ether propeller, I found myself landed mere miles from the most extraordinary lady I have ever met. Sunset Shimmer, a unicorn out of myth and legend in self-imposed exile from her homeland due to her arrogance, rushed to aid me when she saw my ship crash, and without asking for anything in return she assisted me with repairs and offered to show me her homeland once she can return. In the twenty days since then, we have become fast friends despite the mere hour per day we can understand each other's words, a fact that has caused her no end of discomfort, as she seemed shocked at the idea that anyone would be willing to be friends with her. When I inquired as to why, she simply informed me that in her homeland she was known as a, and I quote: “snobbish, arrogant little brat who thought that learning magic from Celestia made her better than everypony else.”

Her admission was quite amusing, she blushed a brilliant shade of red-orange through her coat, which I did not even know was possible. However, the content of that statement simply illustrated again the difference between our worlds. The idea that someone who has become the personal student of the ruler of her nation is not better than the rest of society… such talk would see its speaker condemned as an anarchist in London [1]. It is fascinating to hear about her homeland, and from her reaction she has the same thoughts about London!

To hear her tell me, while their land might be superior in the thaumaturgical sciences (I informed her of the negative connotations of “magical arts” and she provided that phrase as an alternative), they are behind us by decades in many other fields, mainly industrial production and electricity. For example, according to her steam engines are a relatively new invention, post-dating the creation of their rail network by nearly a century! When I asked her for clarification, she informed me that many rail cars were, and in some cases still are, pulled by members of her species with a talent for using thaumaturgical energy to strengthen their own bodies far beyond what their muscles could accomplish unaided.

After that, she gave me a more in-depth explanation of her species. Apparently, not all of her kind are unicorns, some are Pegasi, ponies who channel thaumaturgical energy through wings to fly through the air, control wind patterns, and even lay atop clouds as though they were solid. Many of these flyers live in cities built into clouds, controlling the weather according to a strict schedule with an accuracy that any earthly power would pay a king's ransom for. However, the majority of the population are a third type whose name translates to Earth Pony. These individuals have less visually impressive abilities than their counterparts, with some using the aforementioned techniques to strengthen their own bodies, while others are able to encourage incredible growth from plants around them, creating vast fields full of crops that can be harvested multiple times a year, an ability that more than makes up for the lack of visually interesting abilities in my personal opinion, although Sunset, as a Unicorn, disagrees with me. The unification of these three races is far beyond anything seen on Earth, with miscegenation accepted as a fact of life and society integrated to the point that setting aside districts entirely for one race would be completely unthinkable. This unity is exemplified by Princess Celestia, who according to Sunset has the powers of all three races in addition to her nigh-immortal lifespan. Based on Sunset's experience with Celestia, I learned that the Princess is the reason for the unification of the races of her kind, being the only being in the realm who remembers a time where there was division between the races, she does her utmost to prevent a reversion to those older, more "savage" times. [2]

After her explanation, she inquired as to the races of the solar system, and appeared surprised that only one species of intelligent life had been found per planet, with Mercury and Luna having no intelligent life at all. Once that was complete, we spoke on minor topics for a while as we reviewed maps of Mercury and dreamed of future adventures, with Sunset revealing a near compulsive desire to investigate the mysteries of The World River, which brought us into conflict. I argued that The World River was the best mapped portion of Mercury, and if we wanted to discover something truly new we would need to leave the Twilight Zone and enter either the land of eternal night or eternal day. Sunset in turn argued that none of the previous expeditions along the World River had an expert at thaumaturgy with them, and as such we had the best chance of uncovering the mysteries of the river.

In the end, we admitted that the discussion was mostly theoretical. After all, until the hull of my ship is repaired we cannot survive either the hot or cold sides of Mercury and a journey along the World River is the only safe course of action. While this was disappointing for me, I still hold out hope for a new expedition into the frozen lands away from the sun.

Expedition Log: Cycle 335

This is my first entry in a notebook Gertrude gave me! With everything I was discovering, my last one got full, and the only thing keeping me from filling this one the same way is the hour limit per day. Now that she’s settled in and we’re looking at the long term, we’ve been spending more time just sitting around and talking about ourselves, and we’re getting closer and closer the more we talk. She called us friends one time, which was nice. And confusing. I’ve never really had friends before, and I don’t really know how to be a good friend to her, but she hasn’t complained about me so far, and she likes talking about adventures and discovering things, so I guess we’re doing alright?

Friendship is hard.

Anyways, I’ve been trying to explain magical theory to her, except I’m calling it thaumaturgy because she doesn’t like the word magic. Apparently her people think magic is something some demon uses to corrupt their eternal souls and send them to a fiery afterlife for all eternity, and I don't know enough about this world to argue with that. With everything I've seen and read so far, it might even be true!

So like I was saying, we were reviewing magic and how it interacts with the world around us, and if I’m being completely honest her education is… less than stellar. She says she had a tutor, but they only taught her the basics in math and writing before moving onto things like sewing and how to manage a house, and that just made no sense. I mean, sure managing a budget is important, but if her people need to spend so much time fixing their clothes that they can’t do other things, why do they even wear them?

Fortunately, she seems very eager to learn, and listened to everything I said like I was Princess Celestia herself! Of course, after a while the discussion reached cutie marks and special talents, and to make a long story short apparently the idea of a mark on your body symbolizing your special talent is “completely unprecedented and without any point of comparison” in human society. I’m pretty sure she was exaggerating, they have to have _some_ way of knowing what other humans are good at.

Well, since then I’ve been working on an idea. I know from Gertrude's books that the World River is magic at some points, I mean come on, water flowing uphill? That’s magic. Anyway, after my last boat got attacked by a monster while I was going across the river, I’ve been cautious about going near the water, but what if the magic isn’t in the river itself? The Needles are apparently right on the center-line of the planet, and if my hunches are correct, then there is a concentration of magical energy flowing between The Needles keeping the magic stuff on this planet fed despite the low energy levels, and if I’m wrong then I’m back to where I started, trying to figure out how to measure magic in a giant river full of predators.

I can see Gertrude coming down the hill from her ship, I guess I stayed up working through the night. I’ve been doing that more and more lately, something about all these maps and diagrams just gets me excited about all the adventures I could be having, even if I can only barely remember what the words on them mean when the translation spell isn’t running, and I just can’t sit still and do nothing the way I did before she got here. She’s nearly to the entrance to Camp Sunset, so it’s time for me to wrap this up and get a move on. We’ve got an expedition to prepare for.

\------

(Sunset’s POV) [3]

We’ve been working off-and-on on repairing the engines on Gertrude's ship for more than a month now. The worst part is, if we’d worked faster and focused on it 100% we could have had it done by now… but we have no chance of getting replacement parts, and neither of us have ever fixed an airship engine before, so we decided to take things slow, and there’s just so much we had to teach each other about our homes, rushing and pouring everything into one thing seemed like such a waste.

Plus, it rains about once every 5-10 days, sometimes for days at a time, and a lot of the work requires us to be outside to do it, and buck that.

Which is why we were clustered in my cabin, my tarp still covering the hole where I wanted to put a fireplace, and talking about magical theory as I tried to get oil and dirt out of my coat (all of my cleaning spells needed so much energy that it was a choice between talking and cleaning with magic, and there’s just so much more interesting things to talk about with Gertrude).

“So, to summarize, thaumaturgical energy both comes from the world around us and is created passively by living things that have spent a long time dipped in an environment with a high enough level of background magic… sorry, thaumaturgical energy.” I corrected myself, I might not agree with her views on magic but it doesn’t hurt to respect them.

“That process creates a self-sustaining loop that drives up the background energy levels, meaning that once a certain level of energy is ‘naturally’ created by the sun, or the planet, or some other factor, the creation of more energy by living beings pushes the level of energy in the system up even higher. At a certain point the planet itself falls far enough below the surface energy levels that it begins to absorb the energy back, acting as a constant drain in the background that pulls in more power the higher the background levels are. This causes gemstones and other magically attuned materials such as gold to come closer to the surface, pulled towards the surplus of energy, and creating equilibrium.

Which leads us to Mercury: by all accounts, the energy in this world is on borrowed time. Right now, the background energy levels are too low to start the upward spiral into a level on par with Equestria, but based on what I can remember from my studies, at a level this low the energy should simply fade out into nothingness, leaving a world empty of thaumaturgical energy. As we can see, this hasn’t happened, which means there are reserves of power somewhere that are keeping the planet supplied. Once those run out, Mercury loses its magic.”

“I see” Gertrude nodded, scribbling my words in her notebook as I clumsily ran the brush through my tail, pulling dirt and pebbles out of it. “And you believe The Needles and the World River are somehow connected to this reserve?”

I nodded. “Exactly! Once we actually get a chance to examine one of The Needles closely, I’ll be able to say for certain, but it makes sense if you think about it. The World River has things like waterfalls that go up hills, and mostly follows the middle of the Twilight Zone, and The Needles are on the same middle line. There has to be a connection there, right?” I asked before turning back to a particularly stubborn clump in my tail.

She looked up from her journal with a frown. “Sunset, I understand that you do not wish for someone without any experience to handle grooming you, but if I must be completely honest it seems as though you could use some assistance.”

Translation: Sunset you’re embarrassing yourself, let the nice woman who has experience cleaning hair and fur without magic give it a shot.

“Fine, fine.” I shrugged, moving over to lay beside her. I knew friends back in Equestria did stuff like this together, and she had mentioned that she had helped her sisters with their hair back on Earth, but this was the first time since I was a little foal that I was letting someone else brush me, and it felt like I was giving up. I’d been independent for so long, and now after only a few weeks here I was incapable of brushing my own coat?

I clamped down on those feelings as she ran the brush over me, pulling out dirt and undoing clumps of hair across my back and flanks. After a while, I had to admit that she was doing a much better job than I had, even if my pride still rankled a bit at the thought that I was being brushed like some filly who couldn’t be trusted to clean herself.

We laid like that for a while, talking about our plans for our expedition to the nearest Needle, how to finally finish my fireplace (I will be able to cook food indoors like a civilized pony before I leave here, that’s a promise) and some minor chit-chat. When I ran out of power for the translation spell, we stayed like that, since my coat was still a mess, and I just reviewed the notes I had made to see if there was anything I was missing when planning for our trip.

I was so engrossed in my plans and dreams of _finally_ going on another adventure beyond this camp that I didn’t even notice as she put the brush down and laid down next to me with a book of her own, and in the dim light of a single low-power light spell we read our books together, taking comfort in the fact that, even if the nearest other members of our species were far away, we were not alone.

\-----

[ _SS Good Fortune,_ 43 days out of Princess Christiana Station]

During their voyage down the World River, the crew of the _Good Fortune_ had encountered a camp of approximately a dozen prospectors sitting atop a load of gold, and they had halted for three days to trade supplies for raw gold and other precious goods. Given their complete failure to find any trace of Gertrude Bell, it looked increasingly likely that the gold in the lock-box was going to be their only compensation for this voyage. Fortunately for the captain, David Williamson, the gold nuggets were enough to keep his crew calm, and as the continued their search of the planet the mumbling of the men was easily calmed with the knowledge that, even if they never received their reward from Ms. Bell’s father, heading back to Earth and spreading the news of gold and other minerals found on Mercury could let them make a killing off of transporting supplies and prospectors.

However, even with that knowledge, captain Williamson was not sleeping easily anymore. Even if he could make his money back with future voyages, earning the ire of one of Britain's top industrialists was not something any sane man did lightly, and failing to return with either Gertrude or her ship after negotiating for a truly substantial reward was sure to earn the displeasure of Mister Bell and his allies in high society. Which brings us to tonight.

After more than a month, their airship had reached the World Spine, a mountain range halfway across the world from the station [4] that cut across the entire 300-mile wide Twilight zone, and they were prepared to spend days looking through the various peaks for signs of Gertrude’s crashed ship, and if they did not find her there, there was always the next stop on their list of sites a young woman with dreams of adventure might have gone to. With a sigh, Williamson poured himself a cup of tea, made from the few remaining leaves in the hold. _It will all be worth it if we bring her home._ He thought, determination filling him as he looked out over the vast peaks ahead of the ship. _That reward will make this all worth it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Only among the wealthy industrialists and nobles at the top would the idea that someone's position does not determine their worth seem radical, Gertrude would be surprised to see how many factory workers would agree with the sentiment.
> 
> [2] So, this portion has a lot of headcanons in it, and keep in mind this is Sunset relaying it to Gertrude, who views it through a victorian lense, which I will blame for any inaccuracies.
> 
> [3] So, I'm trying my hand at writing first-person outside the journals, let me know what you think.
> 
> [4] According to the sourcebook, a log floating on the World River would take 133 days to circumnavigate the world, so I figured 40 days (43 total - 3 with the prospectors) was a decent pace for an airship to travel halfway around the world with all the stops at various landmarks to look for signs of Gertrude.

**Author's Note:**

> Also on FimFiction.net if you prefer to read MLP fics there:
> 
> https://www.fimfiction.net/story/459757/sunset-expedition


End file.
